Although epichlorohydrin rubbers and acrylonitrile-butadiene rubbers are polar, their polarity and compatibility are different. Consequently, their blends are generally considered incompatible and their blends exhibit low ozone resistance unless cured with a lead curative but lead cured rubbers are objectionable for harm to the environment. Further, these rubbers need different cure systems and degrade by different mechanism. For example, epichlorohydrin rubbers degrade with oxidation through a reversion mechanism while acrylonitrile-butadiene rubber undergoes resinification as it oxidizes. Further, the resinification degradation is harmful to use in fuel and oil application. Therefore, it has been desirable to produce blends of these rubbers that have good to superior ozone resistance, better heat aging and resistance to fuel and oil, and freedom from lead curatives.
Although, British Patent No. 1,246,039 obtain good ozone resistance of vulcanized blends of acrylonitrile butadiene rubber and epichlorohydrin rubber cured with lead compounds, these vulcanizates contain undesirable lead compounds that present problems.